(a) Field
The invention relates to a liquid crystal display.
(b) Description of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display (“LCD”) is one of flat panel display devices that are widely used and generally includes two display panels where field generating electrodes such as a pixel electrode and a common electrode are formed, and a liquid crystal layer interposed therebetween.
The LCD generates an electric field in a liquid crystal layer by applying a voltage to the field generating electrodes, to determine orientations of liquid crystal molecules of the liquid crystal layer and control polarization of incident light, thereby displaying an image.
The LCD also includes a switching element connected to each pixel electrode, and a plurality of signal lines including gate lines and data lines for applying the voltage to the pixel electrode by controlling the switching element.
Among the LCDs, a vertically aligned mode LCD in which a long axis of the liquid crystal molecules are arranged to be perpendicular to a display panel in the state in which an electric field is not applied has been in the limelight due to a high contrast ratio and a wide reference viewing angle thereof. A wide reference viewing angle is defined as a viewing angle that makes the contrast ratio equal to 1:10 or as a limit angle for inversion in luminance between grays.
In order to approximate side visibility to front visibility in the vertical alignment (“VA”) mode LCD, a method of causing a difference in transmittance by dividing one pixel into two sub-pixels and applying different voltages to the two sub-pixels has been suggested.